Mail box with door opening means

ABSTRACT

A roadside mail box is especially adapted to be opened and closed by movement of a mail service vehicle past it. The box has a door provided with an outwardly projecting arm which is engageable by a slanted actuating rod mounted on the vehicle. As the vehicle approaches the box, engagement of the actuating rod with the arm opens the box door. As the vehicle leaves the box, the rod becomes disengaged from the arm and the door is closed by a spring. A signal flag on the box, if raised, is automatically lowered by opening of the door.

United States Patent 1191 Rowe et a1.

1 51 May 15, 1973 154] MAIL BOX WITH DOOR OPENING MEANS [22] Filed: May 22, 1972 [21] Appl, No.: 255,205

152] US. Cl. 232/35, 232/17, 232/45 Lau ..232/l7 1,175,756 3/1916 Hartmann ..232/45 2,416,696 3/1947 Johnson ..232/45 1,190,047 7/1916 Travelsteod ..232/45 Primary ExaminerJames T. McCall Assistant Examiner-Peter A. Aschenbrenner Attorney Munson H. Lane et a1.

[57] ABSTRACT A roadside mail box is especially adapted to be opened and closed by movement of a mail service vehicle past it. The box has a door provided with an outwardly projecting arm which is engageable by a slanted actuating rod mounted on the vehicle. As the vehicle approaches the box, engagement of the actuating rod with the arm opens the box door. As the vehicle leaves the box, the rod becomes disengaged from the arm and the door is closed by a spring. A signal flag on the box, if raised, is automatically lowered by opening of the door.

9 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures PATENTEDHAY] 5 I975 SHEET 1 [IF 2 which, when raised, notifies the mailman that there is mail in the box to be picked up, and after doing so, the mailman has to lower the flag.

Obviously, the manual opening and closing of the mail box door and lowering of the flag are timeconsuming procedures which, when repeated dozens of times along the course of a single mail route, substantially slow down the mail delivering and picking up process.

It is, therefore, the principal object of the invention to greatly expedite the mail box servicing procedure, this being attained by the provision of means whereby the mail box door is automatically opened as the mail service vehicle approaches the box, and the signal flag, if raised, is automatically lowered by opening of the door. Then, as the vehicle leaves the box, the door is automatically closed.

As such, the invention provides the mail box door with a projecting arm which is engageable by a slanted actuating rod mounted on the vehicle so that the door is opened when the vehicle arrives at the box. As the vehicle leaves, the actuating rod is disengaged from the arm and the box door is closed by a spring. A linkage between the door and the signal flag automatically lowers the flag, if raised, as a function of opening of the door.

The arrangement of the invention is very simple in construction, effective and time-saving in use, and readily lends itself for application to conventional mail boxes with very little structural modification being necessary. Also, the invention is operable with equal facility on individual mail boxes standing alone, or on several boxes standing beside one another in a group.

With the foregoing more important object and features in view and such other objects and features which may become apparent as this specification proceeds, the invention will be understood from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like characters of reference are used to designate like parts, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a mail box in accordance with the invention, also showing a cooperating actuating rod mounted on a vehicle shown by dotted lines, the box being in its closed position; a

FIG. 2 is a front elevational view of the mail box and actuating rod shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view similar to that in FIG. 1, but showing the mail box open;

FIG. 4 is a front elevational view of the open box and actuating rod shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged sectional detail of the actuating rod, taken substantially in the plane of the line 5--5 in FIG. 4; and

FIG. 6 is an enlarged sectional detail, taken substan' tially in the plane of the line 6-6 in FIG. 3.

Referring now to the accompanying drawings in detail, the reference character B generally designates a rural mail box mounted on a supporting post 10 at one side of a road. For most part, the box is of a conventional construction, including a body 12 of an inverted U-shaped cross-section, with a floor or bottom 13 and a closed end 14. The end of the box body facing the road is open and provided with a door 15, the latter being mounted by a horizontal hinge pin 16 for movement between a closed position shown in FIGS. 1-2 and an open position shown in .FIG. 3-4. A conventional signal flag 17 is pivotally mounted as at 18 at one side of the body 12, the flag being movable between a raised position shown in FIG. 1 and a lowered position shown in FIG. 3. In the latter position the flag rests against a stop bracket 19 secured to the side of the box.

In accordance with the invention a torsion spring 20 is positioned on the hinge pin 16, the spring having end portions 20a which bear against the underside of the box bottom 13 as shown in FIG. 6, which an intermediate portion 20b of the spring bears against the door 15 at a point below the hinge pin. The spring thus biases the door to its closed position. While this spring arrangement is preferred, any other suitable spring may of course be used for the same purpose.

Also in accordance with the invention, a substantially .I-shaped arm 21 is secured to the door 15, as by the rivets 22, and projects forwardly or outwardly from the door, as viewed in FIG. 1. As hereinafter described, the arm 21 cooperates with an actuating rod 23 which is mounted on a mail service vehicle: 24, so as to automatically open the mail box door as the vehicle approaches the box. In the meantime it may be noted that the J- shaped arm 21 may be provided with an integral upward extension 25 which constitutes a finger-piece for manually opening and closing the door.

The actuating rod 23 is provided with an integral extension including a horizontal portion 23a and a vertical portion 23b, the latter being secured to the vehicle 24 as by a suitable socket or bracket 26 affixed to one side of the vehicle. The rod portion 23b extends upwardly from the socket 26, the portion 23a projects laterally outwardly from the side of the vehicle in the direction of the mail box, and the rod 23 itselfslants downwardly and rearwardly in relation to the direction of travel of the vehicle as indicated by the arrow 27.

Therelationship of the rod 23 on the vehicle to the arm 21 on the mail box door is such that the lower end portion of the rod 23 is normally below the arm 21 in the closed position of the door 15. As the vehicle 24 approaches the mail box in the direction 27 in sufficiently close lateral proximity thereto, the slanted actuating rod 23 comes into engagement with the J-shaped arm 21 so that continued movement of the vehicle causes the rod 23 to depress the arm 21 and thus open the door 15 against the action of the spring 20. At that point the vehicle is stopped in order that the mailman may insert mail into or remove mail from the box through the open door. With that accomplished, the ve hicle moves away from the mail box in the direction of the arrow 27, with the lower end of the actuating rod 23 passing over the arm 21 in the open positionof the door as will be apparent form FIG. 4, and when the rod 23 ultimately becomes disengaged from the arm 21, the door 15 is automatically closed by the biasing action of the spring 20. If several mail boxes stand side-by-side in a group, the actuating rod 23 successively engages the arms 21 and opens the doors of the respective boxes in a progressive manner in a step-by-step movement of the vehicle from one box to the next.

Although the actuating rod 23, including its portions 23a, 23b, is sufficiently rigid to perform the door opening operation as already described, the rod is also sufficiently flexible so that it may deflect resiliently upwardly while passing over the arm 21 in the open position of the door as shown in FIG. 4. As shown in FIG. 5, the rod 23 may have an oval cross-section with its major axis in the vertical pane and its minor axis in the horizontal plane, so that the rod is even more flexible horizontally toward and away from the mail box, thus assuring that the mail box is not damaged by engagement of the rod with the arm 21.

A lost-motion linkage is provided between the door and the signal flag 17 so that the flag, if raised in the closed position of the door, is automatically lowered when the door is opened. The linkage comprises a slotted extension 30 of the flag 17 with a link 31 having a pivot pin 32 at one end in the slot of the extension. The other end of the link is pivoted as at 33 to a bracket 34 provided at one side of the door 15. The linkage arrangement is such that when the door is closed, the flag 17 may be manually raised and becomes automatically lowered by the opening movement of the door. Thereupon the flag remains lowered while the door closes, but may again be manually raised while the door is in its closed position, this being possible by lost motion of the pin 32 in the slot of the flag extension 30.

The flag 17 may be lowered manually while the door 15 remains closed, if desired, by lifting the integral flange 31' extending laterally from the link 31 so that the link is pivoted counterclockwise about the pivot pin 33. The pin 32 affixed in the end of the link 31 will thus move in an arcuate path as the link 31 rotates counterclockwise and cam the flag l7 clockwise until the flag is lowered against the stop 19.

It will be noted that the flag 17 is mechanically locked in the up position as seen in FIG. 1, because of the relative position of the slot 30 which is vertical and the link 31 which is horizontal. The flag 17 can only be lowered by pivoting link 31 manually or by opening the door 15 to cause the link 31 to pivot.

While in the foregoing there has been described and shown the preferred embodiment of the invention, various modifications and equivalents may be resorted to within the spirit and scope of the invention as claimed.

What is claimed is:

1. For use in combination with a mail service vehicle, a roadside mail box especially adapted to be opened and closed by movement of the vehicle past the mail box, said mail box including a hollow body having an open end facing said roadside, a road-facing door for closing said open end swingable between a closed and an open position, hinge means for mounting said door adjacent the open end of said hollow body, said hinge means having a horizontal axis about which said door swings, means biasing said door to its closed position,

and an arm secured to and projecting outwardly from said door, said arm having a mounting portion secured to said door and a hook portion extending from said mounting portion in an upturned, outwardly projecting bend to provide a lever arm for swinging said door open about said axis, together with a slanted actuating rod adapted to be mounted on a vehicle and engageable with said arm to open said door against the action of said biasing means as the vehicle approaches the mail box, said actuating rod including an elongated downwardly slanted portion having an upper end and a free end at its lower extremity, and mounting means secured to the upper end of said downwardly slanted portion for positioning said downwardly slanting portion outwardly from the side of said vehicle in position for the downwardly slanting portion to engage said hook portion of said arm intermediate the ends of said downwardly slanted portion in order to cam said hook portion downwardly to open said door as the vehicle moves along the roadside adjacent said mail box.

2. The arrangement as defined in claim 1 which is further characterized in that said arm is substantially J-shaped.

3. The arrangement as defined in claim 1 wherein said means for biasing said door to its closed position comprises a spring.

4. The arrangement as defined in claim 1 wherein said mounting means includes an inverted L-shaped integral extension of said downwardly slanted portion for mounting the same on a vehicle.

5. The arrangement as defined in claim 1 together with a signal flag pivotally mounted on one side of the mail box for movement between a raised and a lower position, and lost-motion linkage operatively connecting said door to said flag so that the flag, when raised, is lowered by opening of the door.

6. The arrangement set forth in claim 1 wherein said downwardly slanted portion of said actuating rod is positioned in a substantially vertical plane.

7. The arrangement set forth in claim 1 wherein said actuating rod is flexible and at least said downwardly slanted portion of said actuating rod has an oval crosssection with its major axis in a vertical plane and its minor axis in a horizontal plane so that the rod is more flexible to bend horizontally toward and away from said mail box than it is to bend vertically.

8. The arrangement according to claim 1 wherein said hollow body of said mail box includes an elongated bottom floor, and an elongated cover portion of inverted U-shaped cross section secured to said bottom floor, said hinge means including a hing pin mounted transversely beneath said floor adjacent said open end.

9. The arrangement according to claim 6 wherein said door includes an integral extension extending from said door, on the opposite side of said hinge pin for engaging the bottom of said mail box to limit swinging movement of said door about said hinge pin in the open position of said door. 

1. For use in combination with a mail service vehicle, a roadside mail box especially adapted to be opened and closed by movement of the vehicle past the mail box, said mail box including a hollow body having an open end facing said roadside, a road-facing door for closing said open end swingable between a closed and an open position, hinge means for mounting said door adjacent the open end of said hollow body, said hinge means having a horizontal axis about which said door swings, means biasing said door to its closed position, and an arm secured to and projecting outwardly from said door, said arm having a mounting portion secured to said door and a hook portion extending from said mounting portion in an upturned, outwardly projecting bend to provide a lever arm for swinging said door open about said axis, together with a slanted actuating rod adapted to be mounted on a vehicle and engageable with said arm to open said door against the action of said biasing means as the vehicle approaches the mail box, said actuating rod including an elongated downwardly slanted portion having an upper end and a free end at its lower extremity, and mounting means secured to the upper end of said downwardly slanted portion for positioning said downwardly slanting portion oUtwardly from the side of said vehicle in position for the downwardly slanting portion to engage said hook portion of said arm intermediate the ends of said downwardly slanted portion in order to cam said hook portion downwardly to open said door as the vehicle moves along the roadside adjacent said mail box.
 2. The arrangement as defined in claim 1 which is further characterized in that said arm is substantially J-shaped.
 3. The arrangement as defined in claim 1 wherein said means for biasing said door to its closed position comprises a spring.
 4. The arrangement as defined in claim 1 wherein said mounting means includes an inverted L-shaped integral extension of said downwardly slanted portion for mounting the same on a vehicle.
 5. The arrangement as defined in claim 1 together with a signal flag pivotally mounted on one side of the mail box for movement between a raised and a lower position, and lost-motion linkage operatively connecting said door to said flag so that the flag, when raised, is lowered by opening of the door.
 6. The arrangement set forth in claim 1 wherein said downwardly slanted portion of said actuating rod is positioned in a substantially vertical plane.
 7. The arrangement set forth in claim 1 wherein said actuating rod is flexible and at least said downwardly slanted portion of said actuating rod has an oval cross-section with its major axis in a vertical plane and its minor axis in a horizontal plane so that the rod is more flexible to bend horizontally toward and away from said mail box than it is to bend vertically.
 8. The arrangement according to claim 1 wherein said hollow body of said mail box includes an elongated bottom floor, and an elongated cover portion of inverted U-shaped cross section secured to said bottom floor, said hinge means including a hing pin mounted transversely beneath said floor adjacent said open end.
 9. The arrangement according to claim 6 wherein said door includes an integral extension extending from said door, on the opposite side of said hinge pin for engaging the bottom of said mail box to limit swinging movement of said door about said hinge pin in the open position of said door. 